African Leaders Endorse a Science Funding Platform for Africa: the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA)

Abstract

In a key development for scientific and health research in Africa, the African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, endorsed the establishment of the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA), a platform created by the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and the NEPAD Agency. This pan-African platform offers an opportunity for the long-term development of research leadership, scientific excellence, and innovation that will have an impact on Africa’s developmental challenges. The AESA platform will, among other things, identify challenges that hinder rapid scientific advancement in Africa, run open calls for proposals with transparent review processes, actively manage grants, and evaluate and measure the impact of such investments. AESA will promote the collaborative and coordinated implementation of the African Union’s (AU) Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA 2024) in the area of health.